MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award

Nov 15, 2018

For 30 years, the MHSAA and Farm Bureau Insurance have honored the best student-athletes in Michigan. Again this year, they will award 32 students with $1,000 scholarships based on achievement and leadership in athletics and activities, as well as responses to short-answer and essay questions. Seniors with an unrounded 3.50 or better GPA who have an earned a varsity letter in an MHSAA-sponsored sport are eligible to apply.

Schools are limited to the number of students who will be considered for the award. Class A schools can nominate 6 boys and 6 girls, Class B can nominate 4 boys and 4 girls, Class C can nominate 3 boys and 3 girls and Class D can nominate 2 boys and 2 girls.

For the first time, all steps of the Scholar-Athlete Award process will be online without any paperwork. Students will fill out the entire application online and our judges will also be reviewing and scoring applications online. Otherwise, the Scholar-Athlete Award program is the same as in past years. We ask for the same background info, short-answer questions and essays, and we score applications using the same point system as in past years.

Below is how each applicant is judged and some tips on each section.

Essay (40%): Be creative in telling the judges why sportsmanship is important to educational athletics. VERY IMPORTANT: the judges will be reading dozens of essays - make yours stand out! Tell the judges a personal story about sportsmanship; don't give them the Webster's definition of sportsmanship.

Extra-Curricular Activities Form (30%): Focus on significant leadership experiences and significant athletic achievements and academic awards won. Judges are looking for quality of experiences, not quantity of experiences.

Short-Answer Questions (20%): Use this space to tell us more about how you've personally benefited by staying active – both with school sports and with outside school activities. These are not throw-away questions, consider them mini-essays.

Letters of Recommendation (10%): Approach coaches, teachers, school administrators, youth group leaders or others in your community to have them write recommendation letters so the judges can learn a little bit more about you.

If you or you student-athlete is interested, please go to mhsaa.com/scholarship and complete the application process. The deadline is Friday, Nov. 30, at 4:00 p.m. 120 Finalists will be announced in late January and the 32 winners will be announced throughout February. The winners will also be invited to MSU's Breslin Center to be honored during one of the MHSAA's Boys Basketball state final games.